Syrian businessman Saeed Nahhas had already fled the country by the time his two workshops were engulfed by the civil war. Government shelling destroyed one that made packaging machines, and four months later rebels looted another that produced plastic bags and zippers. Nahhas was living in the Turkish province of Gaziantep near the Syrian border when he lost the two facilities. He decided to stay there and set up a new workshop while waiting for the conflict to end. “It’s a tragedy,” said Nahhas, 46. “And the longer the conflict drags on, the harder it will be for people to return and set up their businesses again.” As well as leaving more than 125,000 people dead since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began March 2011, the fighting has wiped out more than half of Syria ’s manufacturing output by crippling the network of small […]